After finishing my business at the Yamanaka Flower Shop, I still needed to go to the butcher for my fresh meat. However, the sun was starting to set so time was a becoming a bit of an issue. I put on my speed walking shoes and hurried over to the shop.
"Welcome! Please take a look around, but keep in mind we're closing soon." said a well built man from behind the counter.
I need some beef and some chicken I thought to myself as I made my way around the store as quick as I could. Luckily, I knew what I needed and was able to make my way out of the store in break neck pace.
The lights in the city started turning on as I made my way out of the store. The sun was barely visible in the sky, the stars shining brightly from above. Families started calling their children home from their doorways.
I worked my way back towards the village gates, until I spotted Ichiraku Ramen on my way out. My stomach grumbled heartily. I still hadn't eaten since this morning, before watering my crops. Checking the coin purse Lady Tsunade gave me, I decided I could spare a bit extra for some of the best ramen in the village.
"Welcome to Ichiraku. What can I get ya?" the girl behind the counter asked.
"One tonkotsu ramen, please!"
"Coming right up!"
"Hey there, Sayuri. I thought you weren't staying in the village for very long?" a familiar voice from behind me said. I turned and saw Izumo and Kotetsu.
"I had some shopping to do. It took much longer than I thought." I said gesturing to the bags next to me.
"Well, would you like some company?"
"Hey there, Sayuri! Thanks for joining me for dinner!" I heard another familiar voice, before I was attacked with a hug by the same blonde working at the Yamanaka Flower Shop. "Thanks for keeping her company before I could get here, Izumo. But I'll be keeping her company now"
"Oh, no problem. See ya around." Izumo said, taking his leave, Kotetsu following him.
"Sorry, but he's a bit of a creep." the blonde said with a bit of a huff as she sat down next to me.
"It's okay, I can handle it. I was just caught a bit off guard."
"It's not a good idea to let your guard down in a village full of ninjas. Especially when you live on the outskirts of the village like you do." She said, matter-of-factly.
"Ino, what're you doing? Its so troublesome when you run off like that." I heard another voice from behind me. This time it was a deep and a leisurely voice and I didn't recognize it. I didn't bother turning around again. If they were going to join me as well, then I'd look at them eventually.
"Just helping out a fellow friend." She responded, with a shrug. "So, we're going to join her and make sure she isn't bothered on her way home."
"You really don't have to do that, ya know." I told her.
"I know. Think of it as a thanks for the bread." She said with a smile. I knew with that, she wouldn't let me refuse any further.
Two other men, both around my age, sat down next to Ino. I couldn't see them beyond her own body and I didn't strain myself to find out.
"Oh, welcome! What can I get for you?" the girl from behind the counter returned from wherever she went.
"One miso ramen for me!" Ino said.
"Shoyu." The deep lazy voice said.
"Three curry ramen!" said another unfamiliar voice who, confusingly, sounded like his mouth was already full?
"Coming right up!" she said, disappearing into the back again.
"So, you HAVE to tell me what you put in that bread!" Ino exclaimed.
"Oh, its just a levening agent. It sours the dough and helps it rise." Ino looked at me with a blank face. Obviously she had no idea what a levening agent was. "It's a basic combination of flour, water, and yeast. You let that rise and sour for about twelve hours and use it in fresh bread dough." I tried explaining a little better, although I'm still not sure if she understood. "How long have you been working at the flower shop?"
"Oh, my family owns it. I work behind the counter whenever I'm not on a mission."
We continued with our little small talk throughout dinner. The two men chatted to each other while Ino and I carried our own conversations.
I paid for my dinner and stood up, stepped outside the cloth entrance flaps, and did a large stretch. Their really wasn't anything better than fresh ramen.
"Shikamaru. Choji. Grab the lady's bags!" Ino demanded of her friends behind me.
"No, I can carry them!" I demanded back at her.
"What lady carries their own bags when they have two gentlemen who can do it for you?" she winked at me.
"I wouldn't want to impose on your friends."
And then all three of them emerged from the shop, the blonde girl who "saved me" from Izumo's usual attempts to take me on a date in the same civilian clothing that she was in when she tended the flower shop, an overweight man with light brown long hair, covered in what looked to be a red and brown armor jump suit with a large kanji on the front, who was confusingly still eating from a bag of chips, and a very attractive brown, spikey haired man with an army green jonin flack jacket and matching color tactical pants, who happened to be holding my shopping bags.
"If we don't carry them, Ino will be on our asses for who knows how long." He said with a lazy sigh.
"I..I guess if you're okay with it.." I stammered and trailed off.
"Let's just get to where you're going." He said.
"March on, team!" Ino shouted, pointing towards the village gates.
The beginning of the walk was fairly quiet, the overweight man's occasional rustling of potato chip bag, the wind gently rustling the leaves, a stray owl giving out a small call. Most of the night life in the village lay further inside, which was no doubt bustling with ninja trying to take a bit of stress of their minds.
We neared the village gates before the overweight man spoke up.
"Hey, Ino, do you even know where you're going? This path goes outside the village gates."
"I live on the outside of the village. If you guys don't want to go the rest of the way, I can take it from here." I responded.
"You live outside the village? Why would you want to do that?" the overweight man asked.
"Because I wanted to start my own little farm. Well, I guess it's more of a plantation. I don't have any animals."
All four of us continued walking. Through the gates, which were guarded by some unknown nightly ninja. I don't usually say in the village this long, Ino gave a wave to the ninja and told them that the three of them would be back shortly.
"So what do you grow on your farm?" Ino asked.
"Well, lets see.." I envisioned my growing patches in my head. "Okra, lettuce, diakon, carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes to name a few. I picked up the fruit roots at your shop today, I have to figure out where I want to put them and what kind of trellis I can put up for the vines to grow on."
"Wow, you must be quite the chef if you have all of that readily available!" the overweight man exclaimed.
"I'm all right at it." I said shyly.
"She makes fantastic bread!" Ino responded gleefully.
"You'll have to come out and test my cooking ability sometime then." I said with a small giggle. It was nice to hear such high praise for my food.
"Well, that's my stop." I said pointing to the gate that could be seen in the short distance in the darkness. "It's not much, but it's home."
Shortly, we arrived at the front of my gates. I reached out for my bags from the man who carried them this whole way.
"Are you sure you don't want help putting this all away?" Ino suggested.
"You guys have already done enough for me. Thank you for your kindness and for walking me back to my home." I said with a polite bow.
Exhausted I dropped all my grocery bags onto the counter. I checked the clock and saw it was almost ten. I had spent so much extra time in the village than I thought I had. The time had seemed to fly by faster than I had anticipated.
I put the milk, eggs, and meat into my cool cellar, in hopes that it would prolong their life. The rest of that can wait til tomorrow, I thought to myself, feeling my legs grow heavy along with my eyes. It had been a long day that I wasn't nearly prepared for. If it rains tomorrow, I will know the gods will have looked upon me lovingly.
As soon as I undressed and crawled into bed, not willing myself to put my normal pajamas on, I was asleep.
Unfortunately, the gods did not look on me in my prayers for rain. The sun shone through the trees outside my window and grazed upon me with loving heat. I sighed as I pulled myself out of bed. My body still felt heavy with exhaustion, but I knew I would have to pull through. There was no days off when your livelihood relies on your crops. Among watering all the crops, today I had to prune and pinch many of the over growing vines.
Tomatoes were such a yielding crop, but if left unchecked, they would over crowd many of the other crops. The continual weeding that had to be done made sure that none of the crops that required flowers to grow, so that they would produce fruit, but they're also the source of seeds. The wind blows and the seeds spread, germinating into other areas where they could potentially kill off what I originally want to grow there.
As I did my daily duties, I thought about the bubbly blonde that graced me with her presence the day before. Even though it was unexpected of her, I still had a lot of fun with her and her friends. It had been a while since I dined with someone other than Lady Tsunade and her aid, Shizune. Not many people came out of the village if they didn't have to.
Sometimes the loneliness from living outside of the village was overbearing. Sometimes the silence of friends would weigh on me like lead. Sometimes the lack of communication made me feel like I was the only one left on this planet.
But yesterday, it gave me a bit of revitalization.